the First Lord of the Admiralty whether any further information has been obtained as to the cause of the damage to H.M.S. "Hannibal"?

The cause of the damage to the "Hannibal" was a submerged rock.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that the yard craftsmen are often called upon to work continuously from 12 to 16 hours per day, and that the scale of pay at the Royal Victoria Yard is 1s. 8d. per day for ordinary seamen, 2s. 2d. per day for able bodied seamen, and 2s. 5d. per day for stokers, with 1s. 8d. per day victualling allowance to each class of men; and whether he can now concede to these men the London rate of wages for seamen, and overtime for all hours worked in excess of those worked by the workmen employed at the Royal Victoria Yard?

These men are employed under the same conditions, and receive the same rate of pay, as yard craft men in other Admiralty establishments, and it is not proposed to place them upon a different footing. The occasions on which they are required to work such long hours as indicated in the hon. Member's question are not frequent; and, when they do occur, extra pay is granted. Further, they are paid for seven days a week, but are practically only required to work on? six days.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether a new item, amounting to about £187,000, has this year been included in the repairs section of the Shipbuilding Vote and this item includes work at naval colleges, barracks, prize-firing targets, booms, wireless telegraph stations, and shore stations generally; and whether he can state the purpose of transferring them to the Shipbuilding Vote?

Prior to the financial year 1909–10 the dockyard expenditure in connection with these services was provided for under Subhead F of the Programme of Shipbuilding, "Establishment, Incidental and Miscellaneous Charges, Unappropriated." As this expenditure could be directly associated with the services in question it has been decided that it should be provided for in future under the relative Subheads (D and E) of the Programme. This transfer of the provision, moreover, enables the proper proportion of incidental expenditure to be allocated to the services in the same manner as for other direct expenditure.

also asked the First Lord of the Admiralty what was the date of the last entry of armourer ratings into the Navy; whether the Board will continue the existence of a body of men who have been of such utility to the Navy; and, if so, whether, having regard to the fact of the number of ratings who have successfully passed the examinations for higher rating and are now waiting for promotion, the Board will improve the position and prospects of these men?

The last entry was made in 1904. The reason why entries have been suspended since that date is that the numbers of the Armourer Class are in excess of the requirements of the present Fleet. There is no present intention of dispensing with this branch of the naval service. The position of the Armourer Class has received the consideration of the Admiralty, and steps were taken early this year to relieve the block of advancement so far as was considered necessary at the moment. The matter will not be lost sight of in the future.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the Warwickshire County Council recently applied, under the Small Holdings Act, for compulsory powers to purchase Thorn-hill Farm, White Stone, Nuneaton, a farm of 118 acres, and also Sowe Fields, near Coventry, 12 acres; that the cost of valuing the 118 acres by a valuer appointed by the Board of Agriculture came to £60 11.s., and that the cost of valuing the 12 acres was £19 10s. 10d.; and whether the cost of valuing the land of this country under the Budget proposals will be proportionately equal?

I have no information on the subject referred to in the first part of the question. As regards the second part, I may refer the hon. Member to the statements made to the Committee by the Prime Minister on the 11th and 17th ultimo.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the amount of the War Loan of 1899 held by the Government Departments, including the India Currency Reserve, also the amount in the hands of the general public?

The amount of the War Loan, 1900, outstanding on 31st March, 1909, was £21,339,602. Of that amount, Government Departments (including the Indian Gold Reserve Fund) held £1,055,201 (House of Commons Paper No. 135, 17th May, 1909), and £20,284,401 was in the hands of the general public.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can state, approximately, the number of new officials that will be created under the Finance Bill of 1909, and the approximate cost of the same?

So far am professional valuers are concerned, who will be required in connection with the valuation proposed under the Finance Bill, I beg to refer the hon. Member to the speeches made by the Prime Minister in Committee on the 11th and 17th ultimo. I am not yet in a position to state the numbers and cost of the indoor and subordinate staffs which will be required under the several parts of the Bill upon its passing into law.

asked the Postmaster-General if he has received from the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce complaints of errors made in the transcription of code telegrams and code cablegrams; and whether he has under consideration the adoption of the typed-tape system which is in use in telegraph offices abroad?

Yes, I have received and am considering these complaints, and I am sending an answer to the Chamber of Commerce.

asked the Postmaster-General why the adult night messengers in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Derry do not get the five days' leave in lieu of the Bank holidays together; and whether he could see his way to give these officers in future the five days' holidays at one time instead of separating them up as at present?

The adult night messengers at Dublin are granted the whole of the leave in lieu of bank holidays together. At Belfast the adult night messengers were granted a day's leave in lieu of 26th December last, and the other four days in lieu will be given to them together before the end of the year. The system at Cork is to give a day in lieu of a Bank Holiday to the adult night messengers before the next Bank Holiday comes round, and the men have raised no objection. I am, of course, prepared to consider any application from Belfast and Cork messengers for a change of practice. The adult messengers at Londonderry are part-time officers, and are not entitled to leave in lieu of Bank Holidays.

asked the Postmaster-General whether the postmastership of Haddington will be vacant shortly; and, if so, whether the vacancy will be advertised in the usual manner?

There is no vacancy at present. If and when one occurs it will be dealt with in the ordinary way either by advertisement or by exchange.

asked the Postmaster-General whether it is proposed to discontinue the sale of foolscap penny postage envelopes>

The 1d. embossed envelopes of "foolscap" size were introduced in 1903, but they met with very little demand, and indeed the initial stock was not exhausted until May last. The sale of these envelopes was clearly not sufficient to justify a further issue, and I decided to withdraw them. Two other sizes of 1d. envelopes and two sizes of ½d. envelopes are issued by the Post Office, and have a very large sale.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether the warehouse-keepers' books in the Port of London show the totals of various kinds of mahogany logs in stock, imported and delivered; whether they give the same particulars for walnut, birch, and oak logs, and the number of boards and planks of American walnut, American oak, and American whitewood; and whether, in view of its value to trades interested in timber, he will request the Port of London authority to publish weekly or, failing that, fortnightly, a complete list of all stock in all the docks under the control of the Board?

I am informed by the Port of London Authority that as regards furniture and hardwood they publish, for the information of the trades concerned, weekly and monthly stock returns, describing the various kinds of timber, classified as logs, planks, tons, or loads, as may be most serviceable for the guidance of the respective trades, and that in the case of softwoods a monthly statement of stock is issued from the respective docks where such wood is stored, and in this statement the goods are described or classified according to the description of wood and the method followed by the trade in dealing with such wood. I have no power to require the Port of London Authority to publish weekly or fortnightly lists of the stock in the docks under their control, but they inform me that they would be pleased to consider any application which may be made to them by the wood trade generally or by any special section of the trade, with a view to making the returns more comprehensive or serviceable.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what was the total amount of articles, wholly or mainly manufactured, imported into this country during the year 1908, and by what amount this item is lessened after deducting re-exports, tin, copper, zinc, pig-lead, quicksilver, indigo, barks for tanning, leather, skins and furs dressed, oil seed-cake, paraffin wax, stone slabs, and marble rough-hewn; and what would be the amount of a 10 per cent. duty on the total volume of wholly or mainly manufactured articles after the deductions aforesaid had been made?

The total value of the imports into the United Kingdom of all articles classified as wholly or mainly manufactured in 1908 was £143,085,597. If from this sum are deducted the value of the imports of the articles specified in the question and also the value of the re-exports of all other articles in the group the remainder is about 91 ½ million pounds sterling. Ten per cent. of this sum is £9,175,000, but such a sum cannot, of course, be regarded as the probable proceeds of a 10 per cent. duty, as no allowance is made in the calculation for any decline in importation resulting from the imposition of the duty, or for several other not less important inroads.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, with reference to the reason given for the action of the Treasury in making a deduction from the Government contribution in lieu of rates payable to the Cork Corporation in respect of the Cork barracks because of the non-removal of refuse by the corporation staff, that many precedents exist in English municipalities for similar deduction, and that a case of the kind exists in the borough of Woolwich, he will say whether the arrangement in Woolwich arose out of an agreement entered into in the year 1877 between the then Woolwich Local Board and the War Department whereby the War Department agreed themselves to remove refuse from all the Government buildings in the parish, including barracks, dockyards, Arsenal, etc., whereas in the Cork case the corporation were giving the military authorities exactly the same services as they render to other ratepayers, which is the basis of the Government contribution in lieu of rates; will he say whether the other English precedents are of the same character as the Woolwich case; and whether he can specify any case in England where a deduction has been made in the same circumstances as in Cork, namely, without agreement, and where the municipality was giving to the Government the same services as rendered to other ratepayers, and were willing to continue to do so?

The arrangement with Woolwich was made owing to the unwillingness of the local authority to empty ash-pits more frequently for the Government than for ordinary ratepayers, and, by way of acknowledging their liability to that extent, they offered to pay a fair proportion of the cost of the work. This offer was accepted and the arrangement has never been disturbed. The circumstances at Cork appear to be similar, as they were also in the many other precedents referred to in my previous answer. The only difference is that the local authorities in the other cases have recognised the equity of the arrangement.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why an official paper emanating from the Treasury, relating to leave for training for members of the Irish Horse, stated that it is not considered desirable to encourage the enlistment of Civil servants in the Special Reserve; and whether the approval of the Secretary of State for War was obtained to this statement before the issue of the paper?

The conditions of service and training required in the Special Reserve cannot be adequately fulfilled by Civil servants with due regard to the exigencies of their Departments. The answer to the latter part of the question is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, seeing that the service of a telegraph learner is counted for pension from the age of 16, whilst the service of a boy sorter who was a postal learner is, irrespective of age, ignored for such a purpose, he will state the circumstances under which the Treasury differentiated between the telegraph and postal services in this matter?

Service as boy sorter is not counted for pension because the regulations under which this class was recruited expressly stated that such service, in common with service in other boy classes such as boy clerk and boy messenger, would not be included as pensionable service. In the case of the boy telegraphists no such stipulation was made.

asked the Prime Minister what is the cause of the delay in the presentation of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Church in Wales, and whether there is any prospect of its being presented before the end of the present Session?

The Secretary of State is unable to answer the first part of the question; and with regard to the second, he can only say that the chairman tells him the Royal Commission will probably not meet again before 18th October.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he can state the result of the inquiries into the sanitary condition of the houses at West Ham in which the five children had lived and whose deaths were, according to the verdict of the coroner's jury, due to consumption?

I understand that the houses in question had all been inspected during the last 18 months, but a further inspection has now been made. Certain defects have been found to exist in some of the houses, and notices have been served upon the owners, requiring them to remedy these defects. The notice has been complied with in every instance except one. In that case, part of the work has been done, and legal proceedings against the owner have been threatened if it is not completed at an early date.

asked the President of the Local Government Board what has been the longest period allowed during his administration to a local authority for the repayment of a loan; what was the nature of the work undertaken; and what was the estimated time required to complete it?

In various instances I have sanctioned a term of 80 years for the repayment of a loan for the purchase of land for the purposes of the Housing Acts or of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, and this is the longest period which has been allowed by me for the repayment of a loan. There have been cases in which I have allowed 60 years for the repayment of of loans for the erection of dwellings under the Housing Acts. The local authority do not usually state the time within which they estimate that works for which they desire to borrow will be completed.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he can give the number of males of foreign nationalities who were employed in the county of London at the date of the last Census, or at any later period, in hotels, in restaurants, and in private houses, other than shops or business premises, respectively?

The Census Reports do not afford the precise information required by my hon. Friend, but they show that the number of males of foreign nationality who were employed in London at the date of the last Census in domestic indoor service was 5,188, and that the number of such males occupied in connection with the provision of board and lodging and dealing in spirituous liquors was 5,475. See pages 162 and 168 of the volume of the Census relating to London.

asked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) whether he is aware that the shareholders of the Co-operative Dairy Society, Rattoo, county Kerry, have objected to the committee of that society dispensing with the services of their manager on the mere grounds that he refused to send exhibits to the Department's surprise butter competitions; whether the Department recommended to the society for the position of manager a recent pupil of the Ballyhaise school who has had no practical experience of creamery management; whether there was a meeting of the shareholders held in the village of Ballyduff on Sunday, 5th September; if there was any rioting on the occasion; and whether anybody was injured?

The answer to the first and second parts of the question is in the negative. As to the third part, the Department have no information.

asked the Chief Secretary if he is aware that Mr. Patrick O'Brien, National school teacher, of Bally-duff, county Kerry, is also acting as secretary to the Rattoo Co-operative Dairy Society; whether the rules of the Commissioners of National Education allow him to hold both positions; and, inasmuch as he has recently done a considerable amount of work in the Rattoo society's creamery, and taken a prominent part in a dispute between different sections of the shareholders regarding the dismissal of a manager, what steps he intends to take in the matter?

The Commissioners of National Education to whom this question has been referred have no information on the point, but they will cause inquiry to be made into the matter. Under the terms of Rule 88 of the Code national teachers are not permitted to carry on or engage in any business or occupation that would impair their usefulness as teachers.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will say why the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland have recommended no increase of salary to assistant teachers in large schools; if it is their opinion that no school with a higher average than 35 pupils can be efficiently conducted by a single teacher, the principal teacher, while in large schools the second and every succeeding assistant is appointed only when there is an additional average of 45 pupils for each, which necessarily means that the great bulk of the training and teaching of the pupils in such schools must depend on the assistants; and will he explain why the Commissioners have recommended no special consideration for the senior assistant teacher in large schools, if on him, in the absence of the principal, whether for short or long periods, the duties of principal devolve without additional remuneration?

The Commissioners of National Education inform me that their action in regard to their recommendations involves complex educational considerations which it would not be possible to set forth within the limits of an answer to a question. In any case the Commissioners do not think it would be in the public interest to enter into an explanation of their reasons for making or not making recommendations in favour of any class of national teachers.

asked the Chief Secretary if he will say, approximately, the number of land purchasers and payers of interest in lieu of rent in Ireland who are old age pensioners; the number of those who are in default; and to what extent the solvent working of the new Land Bill will depend upon an increase of old age pensions?

I have no means of knowing how many persons who are paying annuities or interest in lieu of rent under the Land Purchase Acts are in receipt of old age pensions, nor am I aware of any connection between the Old Age Pensions Act and land purchase.

asked the Chief Secretary whether, in the cases in which the tenant's signature to a land purchase agreement is obtained by duress or other improper method, the Estates Commissioners promising an inquiry before completion, and the tenant suffers loss by the seizure and sale of his goods at a sacrifice at the suit of the Land Commission collecting interest in lieu of rent for the landlord, the full amount recovered is paid over to the landlord; and, in the event of the subsequent inquiry establishing the duress or other invalidating vice, will he say how the tenant is compensated if the sale goes through within the zones, and how if the landlord rejects the reduced price and refuses to sell?

As regards the first part of the question, I have nothing to add to my replies to the previous questions on the same subject asked by the hon. Member. As regards the concluding portion of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to Section 35 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896. If the Estates Commissioners are satisfied that a purchase agreement was signed under duress they refuse to make the advance, and thereupon the provisions of Sub-section (2) of that Section apply.